The President's Gun Control Actions Today

Executive Orders:

1. "Issue a presidential memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system"

Comment: This seems like common sense.

2. "Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system."

As a general statement, removing barriers to sharing relevant data seems like a good thing. But the President doesn't have the authority to simply order provisions of a federal law like HIPAA struck down/ignored. The devil will be in the details on this one.

3. "Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system."

Depends on the "incentive", I suppose - but again, I have no problem with this in the abstract

4. "Direct the attorney general to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks."
I'm unsure what this means. If it means "double check the list for specific people" . . . well, ok, though I'm not sure how useful it is. If it means "conduct a review of prohibited categories and suggest new prohibitions to be taken to Congress for amendment of current law", then it's a good thing. (Not necessarily that all the suggestions - or even any - will be good, but critical thinking and a fresh look is a good thing)

5. "Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun."

This seems like common sense.

6. "Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers."

Perfectly OK with this

7. "Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign."

Waste of money, but it's not exactly a constitutional overstepping of power